Iran to "investigate" blogger death

Published November 11th, 2012 - 12:37 GMT

Iran's parliament will investigate the death in custody of an Iranian blogger arrested in October and will report to the public, said Sunday the vice president of the Majlis Speaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi.

Iran's parliament will investigate the death in custody of an Iranian blogger arrested in October and will report to the public, said Sunday the vice president of the Majlis Speaker Mohammad Hassan Aboutorabi.

"The National Security Committee was made aware of this case and started an investigation," he was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. "I asked the president of the commission Allaeddine Boroujerdi to inform parliamentarians and the public once the investigation is completed."

Several international human rights announced that Sattar Beheshti, who operated a blog critical of the regime, died at Kahrizak detention center, near Tehran, where he was detained after being arrested on October 28.

According to Amnesty International, the 35-year blogger could die after being tortured. Amnesty in addition to the French, UK and U.S. authorities have called on the Iranian regime to shed light on this matter.

The conservative Iranian MP Ahmad Tavakoli, known for his outspokenness, has asked the authorities to explain the death of Sattar Beheshti, Mehr news agency reported Sunday. "Why the judiciary does not explain? There was a death and it must explain," he said, noting that "foreign governments' propaganda" has been surrounding the case .

Mr. Tavakoli has also criticized the crackdown by the regime against bloggers, claiming that the authorities had better act "against those responsible for corruption instead of making life difficult for bloggers," according to Mehr.

The Kahrizak detention center was already made headlines in July 2009, with the death of three opponents abused by guards.

Following this case, the detention center was temporarily closed by order of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several of his officials had been prosecuted. Hundreds of opponents - politicians, journalists, bloggers, lawyers, human rights activists, trade unionists, filmmakers - are detained in Iran, according to international human rights bodies.